Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) expressed confidence in the government’s ability to reduce fraud today in an appearance at the Legislative Yuan.
Cho made the comments while giving a report and answering questions from lawmakers on the government’s progress in its anti-fraud strategic action plan.
Although the public is unlikely to be satisfied with the government’s progress so far, it is a long-term program, Cho said.
Photo: CNA
The primary targets are five major scam types: fake investments, romance schemes, online shopping scams, fake buyers defrauding sellers and individuals impersonating law enforcement or officials, Cho said.
These five types of scams make up nearly 60 percent of total reported cases and up to 90 percent of total financial losses, Cho said.
Furthermore, there is often a lag between when victims are scammed and when they report it to police, with nearly 95 percent of victims not realizing they have been scammed until six months afterward, he added.
The government has implemented measures in five areas: identifying, blocking, preventing, deterring and punishing fraud, Cho said.
It is focusing on the four most popular social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube — and next month plans to add Threads to this group, Cho said.
For those platforms, the government requires that advertisers use their real names, that the platforms remove fraudulent advertisements within a certain period of time and that the platforms publish transparency reports, Cho said.
The government earlier this year fined Meta NT$16 million (US$533,354) for failing to abide by the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), Cho said.
On May 22, the Ministry of Digital Affairs fined Meta NT$1 million, with a second fine of NT$15 million on June 30, for failing to disclose information about advertisement sponsors on Facebook.
The anti-fraud program has made some progress as the number of reported monthly fraud cases has decreased from an average of 19,000 per month last year to 15,000 last month, a drop of 22.5 percent, Cho said.
Investment scams in particular saw a drop from more than 175 cases a day on average in August last year to 86.7 cases a day last month, Cho said, expressing his gratitude for the prosecutors, bank employees and community members who help fight fraud.
It is a long road to eliminate fraud and the government would continue to propose countermeasures, Cho added.
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